The Teen Vogue Handbook: Design Schools

A career in the fashion industry requires a solid educational foundation. These esteemed schools, located all over the world, can give you the tools for success.

Academy of Art University
79 New Montgomery St., San Francisco, California 94105academyart.eduTuition: $16,080 per year Undergraduate enrollment: 11,500

The Academy of Art University in San Francisco advertises
that it was "built by artists for artists," and with an
80 percentplus job-placement rate at companies such as
Azzedine Alaia, Nike, and Pixar, this communal approach
seems to be working. The academy was founded in 1929,
in a rented loft at 215 Kearny Street, and is now the largest
private art university in the country, providing a wide
assortment of majors—from animation and visual effects to
multimedia communications—and occupying more than
30 buildings in downtown San Francisco, all of them accessible
by a free morning-to-night shuttle. The school also
offers summer study-abroad programs to Belgium, France,
Italy, and the Netherlands.

California College of the Arts
1111 8th St., San Francisco, California 94107cca.eduTuition: $31,032 per year Undergraduate enrollment: 1,383

Cited as one of the worlds best design schools by Business
Week in 2007, California College of the Arts was founded in
1907 by German cabinetmaker Frederick Meyer. Meyer had
envisioned a "practical arts school"—so classes like Body
in Motion Drawing and Art & Society combine artistic ideals
with everyday applicability. CalArts is composed of two
campuses set twelve miles apart—the San Francisco branch
houses the architecture and design programs and connects
by shuttle to the Oakland campus, which is home to the undergraduate
art programs—and has lately been making good
on Meyers mission by engaging in eco-friendly projects. For
example, jewelry and metal-arts students are participating in
a national program dedicated to repurposing old, donated
jewelry into unique, newly fashioned pieces.

Situated in the heart of London, Central Saint Martins is a
stone's throw from Savile Row, a street with significant influence
on British fashion. One of the most competitive art and
design colleges in the world, the School of Fashion & Textiles
encourages students to concentrate on a fashion pathway
such as menswear, womenswear, or fashion marketing.
Born when two art schools combined in 1989, the school
has produced some of the smartest designers on today's runways,
including Stella McCartney and Zac Posen, and graduates
have gone on to work at venerated companies like Dior
and Prada. Applicants from the United States should apply
through the international office, which helps students from
more than 90 countries adapt to their new setting.

Named number one on U.S. News & World Report's 2009
list of master's of fine arts programs, the highly selective
Cranbrook Academy of Art (which accepts only about
75 of its 600 applicants) is situated within the 315-acre
Cranbrook Educational Community campus, adjacent to an
art museum with works by Donald Judd and Andy Warhol.
The academy—20 minutes outside of Detroit—comprises ten
departments, including the two-year 2D Design program,
all stressing independent learning. There are no classes;
rather, students are assigned to a studio during orientation
and are expected to produce designs on which they receive
input from their fellow students and an annual faculty critique.
Prospective students must prepare a comprehensive
portfolio and display the ability to work independently in a
graduate-level environment, in addition to holding a B.A.
from an accredited university or college.

Located near downtown Philadelphia, Drexel University
prides itself on its Cooperative Education program, which
allows students to alternate studying with full-time employment
related to their career interests. The school's
Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design offers
subjects like music industry and fashion design, and it
mandates that attendees spend at least six months working
in their chosen career fields to gain real-world experience.
Companies such as Oscar de la Renta, Saks Fifth Avenue, and
Target have participated in the Co-Op program; firms like
Bergdorf Goodman and Chanel have hired Drexel students.